According to evidence, we should be mere hours away from a PSP2 unveiling, which would be helpful…we could use the ultimate clarification.
The rumors have been flying; not so much that the PSP2 exists (we already know it does), but in regards to the new portable's potential and power. It seems that Sony, in pushing it in the direction of developers, has been saying the PSP2 is "as powerful as the PS3" and so far, at least a few companies have echoed that bold statement. The latest is Codemasters: in speaking to Eurogamer , Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens started by saying "we're at the tip of the iceberg" in terms of portable entertainment and as far as the PSP2 goes:
"In portable areas, you're going to have statements, which are already out in the press, saying PlayStation Portable 2 is as powerful as the PS3 – which is true."
There are many rumors concerning the structure and power of the next PlayStation Portable iteration; it is said to offer 3D support, have a semi-large high-definition screen, boast analog sticks, etc, etc, etc. Perhaps it'll all be cleared up in Japan very soon and we're really hoping that happens…the amount of speculation has reached ridiculous levels.
Just found something that is interesting from a geeky point of view. If this is "as powerful as a PS3", Sony could have pulled off a trick. Toshiba made a thing called the Spurs engine. Which is a 4 SPE co-processor chip. It's like a cell that's had the PowerPC removed and the number of cores dropped, the SPEs are the same design as the Cell's ones.
Without the cache memory and PowerPC core, and having only 4 SPEs, the resulting processor is actually quite small. Sony owns the production facilities that Toshiba used to do that, they purchased them back from Toshiba this year. If I was going to make a portable system that needed to be in the same league as the PS3 performance wise, I might look at making a mobile, extremely low power spurs engine, and add it as a co-processor to whatever mobile chip I use. The main CPU is easier, it doesn't really have to be a PowerPC design. but the SPEs are unique.
Now, I'm not saying that they have done this, but since they pretty much own the design and the manufacturing facilities, Sony could conceivably use the Spurs engine. They could also have worked with nVidia (for example) to integrate the 4 SPE cores into a System on a Chip like the Tegra2. If you could somehow add those 4SPEs to any Tegra 2 or Tegra 3 system, you still wouldn't match the computing power of a PS3 exactly, but boy you would be close, clock cycle for clock cycle.
That's interesting from any point of view, I mean i have no idea what you were talking about, but the gist of it got me quite excited to see if this is in fact what Sony did.
What you just said reminds me of that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where the farmer is saying… something… to the kids.
LOL! OK, try this. THE SPEs inside the PS3 are the secret sauce – so to speak. They are the secret source of power for the PS3. Toshiba was one of the partners making the Cell processor with Sony and IBM. Toshiba decided to make a GPU that was made of just 4 SPEs. The same as the ones on the Cell inside the PS3. They called that GPU the Spurs engine, and even use it in some of their top of the line TVs as a video processor.
So, if the SPEs are the source of the power of the PS3, then if you were able to put 4 of them inside a PSP2, it might not be quite as fast as the PS3, but it would have some of that special secret sauce.
So it will play PS3 games right? No? Oh well, I still want it.
And I also want a tiny PS3 cuz my shelf is full.
With the 3DS costing $250, I wonder how much this beast will cost? Can't wait for that tax refund!
$275? That is if they want to avoid the inevitable criticism that at 300 its the same as a PS3 so blah blah blah.
$300? $275?
go
to
hell.
well dont, coz i like sony,
but im waiting for a price droooop if that happens.
I have neverfound portable gaming fun. When I was in middleschool…that gameboy,etc. bang hit and never cared for it. Now here in the present, my exroomate had a PSP…found it to be amazing, but still had little interest in it at all.
It's on travels the portable really shines. Airports. Trains. Boring evenings in the hotel room during business trips. Such things. The love I have felt for my PSP on those moments is hard to describe, and probably quite unhealthy.
does anyone else feel like they want this very much, but it seems like this is gonna be too expensive?
I don't see how it would be as powerful as ps3 in terms of raw processing power.
They may be simply saying that they can make the game for psp2 without cutting any features from the same game already made for ps3. In other words it will look and play the same.
In any case it looks like impressive piece of technology. I hope people who use portables will get all they wished for.
Unfortunately, I have no need for portable device like this. Only place where I have time to play games is at home. Frankly, I myself, would've been happier if it never existed. I can already see some games going to psp2 lol. Selfish, I know …:)
Love that avatar, I have one just like it somewhere too, but Kossy demands time, and friends.
I'm looking forward to seeing if it has the capability of allowing a Memory Stick to work with it, so all the PSP demos and PS1 games I have on it will work on a PSP2.
If the PSP2 does have a memory card slot and does support all PSN PSP, PS1 and minis titles, I will trade my PSP in today to play it.
I suddenly feel like giving my PSP one last hurrah and playing through MGS Peacewalker, GoW Chains of Olympus, GTA Vice City Stories, Dissidia FF, Crisis Core FF VII and Gran Turismo PSP. All games available on PSN except Crisis Core, what a shame.
With digital distribution costing far less than retail distribution, why are the games on PSN and all other online services (except Steam) still so damn expensive?
Even if it doesn't support memory Stick (i'd bet a lot of money it does, it's Sony after all), you can always re-download from PSN, or copy down from your PS3.
I can't wait for all the details! imagine, developers wont need to hold back when making a game for both the PS3 and PSP2. Just give us the full potential in that game that the PS3 offers and then make some copys of it fr the PSP2.
Sony's conference is going on right now…
right.
and pigs fly backwards while reciting the national anthem!